Ken Draper’s City Watch publishes new content from CIty Hall activists, observers and insiders every Tuesday and Friday. Here’s some articles up today:
* Greuel Scolds Transpo for Dismissing the Public on Bicycle Plan
* Los Angeles Dreamin’ on 10th anniversary of Neighborhood Councils.
* Growing Wheat in the Tundra on bulldozing urban blight.
* In the Driver’s Seat on the NC movement.
* Congestion Pricing: More Heat than Light on traffic congestion.
Here’s my contribution to City Watch:
We Need a Bombshell
In the last 25 years, the consumer price index has risen roughly 100
percent while the salaries of Los Angeles’ elected officials has soared
by more than 700 percent.
So the question I ask is this: Is LA a better city than it was a generation ago?
Admittedly, the air is cleaner but it’s still the most polluted in the
nation. Traffic congestion is still the worst in the nation. There’s a
75 years backlog to fix the streets and sidewalks. Planning for
neighborhood improvement is non-existent. The poverty rate has soared.
Few major corporations call LA home and the civic culture has weakened
to the point or irrelevancy.
The list of negatives is long and the current batch of city officials
has done little to make things better and a lot to make things worse.
From time to time, the public has risen up and demanded change: Ethics
reform in the early 1990s, City Charter Reform a few years later and
finally San Fernando Valley secession at the start of the 21st century.
For all the lip service that was paid to the commitment to reform, city
government today is more corrupted than ever, more immune to the voice
of the people, more held hostage by the role of special interests whose
money makes them all but unbeatable in elections.
The result is massive public subsidies to billionaires and large
corporations for developments that most people didn’t want, digital
billboards and pot shops popping up everywhere much to the annoyance of
residents, a soaring budget deficit at the same time rates, fees and
taxes have risen sharply.
For years, community activists have spent endless hours trying to have
their voices heard, to be partners in solving the city’s problems,
working hard to put people into public office who will represent their
interests.
Their efforts have largely been to no avail although the defeat of
Measure B in March and the election of Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich as City
Attorney in May are signs that the winds of change are gaining strength
To make a difference, we need to redouble our efforts. We need to
become better organized and learn to collaborate among the city’s
far-flung regions, to gather better information and expertise, to be as
effective in bringing pressure on City Hall as the best lobbyists.
But none of that will mean a thing unless we awaken the sleeping giant
of LA politics: The 83 percent who … apathetic, uninformed or defeated
… don’t even bother to vote.
We need a bombshell, maybe many of them.
The weapon at hand is the salaries of our elected officials – salaries
that are far higher than the elected officials of New York or any other
city in the nation.
Our council members are paid $180,000 a year, the controller, city attorney and mayor 10, 20 and 30 percent more.
A Charter Amendment that slashed those salaries in half would be the
wakeup call we need to get the public debate focused on the performance
of the people who win elections with dirty money and serve special
interests far better than the public interest.
It’s a giant task to get a Charter Amendment on the ballot but no
politician in his or her right mind – if there are any – can oppose it
without looking the self-servers they are.
The “50 percent solution” itself is only one piece in the puzzle of how
to turn LA around, but it’s an important step down the road of real
change.
Texas Representative Lamar Smith on the impeachment of US District Judge Samuel Kent who is convicted of sexual assaults on two female employees: “It is now time for justice: justice for the American People who have been exploited by a judge who violated his oath of office.” Rep. Smith is the top Republican on the House Judiciary committee,
I like the concept of making public servants responsible for violating their oath of office, don’t you? According to the Associated Press item in this morning’s Daily News, Samuel Kent is now serving a 33-month sentence after pleading guilty to lying to federal investigative officers. He thinks the Senate may not convict and impeach him, so he wants to continue receiving his salary of $174,000 a year while awaiting trial in prison.
We have a few elected officials we need to impeach because they have a similar problem. They take the Oath of Office, break their word and then lie about it. At least that is my opinion. TH
Frankly, I don’t have a problem with the salary of the City Council and I don’t think you are going to galvanize enough people with the “outrage” of $180,000 salary for an executive in LA.
Once again, it ain’t the salary; it is the cost of the pensions and health care benefits. Once again, we are missing the forest for the trees.
I have been curious to see the math on what it would cost to “double” all city salaries and eliminate all pension and health care benefits in favor of 401Ks and group issurance rates paid by the city employee.
I think people would be shocked at the comparison. People would then get a chance to realize that our city employees ARE the elite: with an experienced ad min making the real value equivalent of $180,000, or the same as the city council members! And, the ad min gets much more vacation and holidays!
And, there are a hell of a lot more ad mins than 15 city council members.
That is why the 36 million dollars annual obligation the LAUSD agreed to in 2007 to give health care benefits to 2,400 part time cafeteria workers is the equivalent to the cost of putting on summer school this year. In other words, the LAUSD sacrificed summer school and the children for its staff’s benefit.
And, when is someone going to address the terribly outdated rules for civil servants? When was the last time, it has updated? I have had people tell me there has been no major reform since 1905.
Is LA better now than it was 10 years ago? Actually, it is. That may be like saying to a bald guy that now you have 200 hair implants growing out of your skull, but the city has made progress.
The police department is certainly better and full credit goes to Bratton’s leadership. I think his term is up soon. Some smart person should write some legislation to extend Bratton’s stay.
Street traffic, while still hell in many areas, is getting better. I really do notice those syched light intersections. That was a plan that should have been done about 20 years ago.
There are certainly more programs for youth and families than there were 10 years ago. There are so many programs for youth that I sometimes feel jealous of them. They sure had NOTHING like that at my park or high school when I was a kid in L.A. I sometimes wonder how different my life might have been if I had had a hand up like that when I was 18.
But in L.A. city planners still don’t have a sense of what the people want and need, or don’t want, in construction and housing. Our medical care for parts of the city is still horrible. Our cost of living, in housing, is still terrible. Our streets? OMG, our streets and freeways needed resurfacing 10 years ago and that maintenance has been deferred for 10 years. I’m thinking they will be done by 2050.
LAPD is still short of cops. Public transportation still falls way short of our needs. And our schools still can’t find a way to give high school diplomas to more than about 60% of the students.
Things have improved. They really have. But there is so much more that could be done.
You’ll notice I did not mention that the zoo needs remodeling in my diatribe. I’m also OK with LACMA getting more rich donors to fund its expansion. I also didn’t say city workers need higher pensions or pay. And the downtown expansion can take a long vacation as far as I am concerned—those lofts downtown have been trying to be sold for 3 years now and they can’t get them sold!!
You would think that city leaders could figure out that the lack of loft sales downtown, no matter what the shuckster developers promised, is a hint that they have guessed wrong about population and income trends in L.A.
But the city overall is still better than it was 10 years ago.
Thanks for the space Ron.
LA City Planning does suck. I am wondering why there is such a need for more housing because so many people are coming. If you drive through the valley on any major east/west or north/south street, you will see block after block after block of For Rent signs in front of apartment buildings and houses. Who is supposed to live there if not the people who are coming? We have so many empty apartments and condominiums, I can’t imagine why the city would want to ever build more. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
Maybe someone could post vacancy rates in parts of the City. Maybe we don’t need more LUXURY apartments and condos.
I have a low opinion of City Watch. He’ll probably miss this one.
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City Attorney Trutanich, ENFORCE THE LAW. GET OFF YOUR BUTT AND ENFORCE THE LAW!!!!!
With the passage of this new law today, THOUSANDS OF TOBACCO AD SIGNS WITHIN LOS ANGELES MUST BE TAKEN DOWN!!!!
For example, ALL TOBACCO AD SIGNS THAT ARE WITHIN 1000 FEET OF RESIDENTIAL ZONES ARE ILLEGAL!!!!! For example, EVERY TOBACCO AD SIGN ON FOOTHILL BLVD., IN SUNLAND/TUJUNGA, IS ILLEGAL.
************** Obama signs sweeping anti-smoking bill *****************
updated 11:53 a.m. PT, Mon., June 22, 2009
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama cited his own long struggle to quit the cigarettes he took up as a teenager as he signed the nation’s strongest-ever anti-smoking bill Monday and praised it for providing critically needed protections for future generations.
…
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act allows the FDA to lower the amount of nicotine in tobacco products, ban candy flavorings that appeal to kids and block misleading labels such “low tar” and “light.” Tobacco companies also will be required to cover their cartons with large graphic warnings
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The bill that President Obama signed today overturns a previous law and now allows states and localities to regulate tobacco advertisements.
In 1998, Los Angeles City passed a law to prohibit tobacco advertisements within 1000 feet of residential zones. It hasn’t been enforced due to federal restrictions. But due to the bill signed today by President Obama, this Los Angeles City law can be enforced!!! NO TOBACCO ADVERTISEMENT SIGNS ARE ALLOWED WITHIN 1000 FEET OF RESIDENTIAL ZONES.
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Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act
SEC. 203. STATE REGULATION OF CIGARETTE ADVERTISING AND PROMOTION.
Section 5 of the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (15 U.S.C. 1334) is amended by adding at the end the following:
(c) Exception- Notwithstanding subsection (b), a State or locality may enact statutes and promulgate regulations, based on smoking and health, that take effect after the effective date of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, imposing specific bans or restrictions on the time, place, and manner, but not content, of the advertising or promotion of any cigarettes.’.
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Los Angeles Municipal Code
CHAPTER IV
PUBLIC WELFARE
ARTICLE 5.2.5
RESTRICTIONS ON SIGNS ADVERTISING TOBACCO PRODUCTS
SEC. 45.22. PROHIBITIONS.
(Added by Ord. No. 172,212, Eff. 10/23/98, Oper. 10/23/99.)
A. No person shall place, permit, or maintain on any on-site or off- site sign, a poster, placard, device, graphic display, or any other form of advertising that advertises tobacco products in publicly visible locations within 1,000 feet of any residential zone, residential use, school, religious institution, entertainment park, youth center, or public park or playground except as permitted under Section 45.23.
B. The distance specified in this section shall be the horizontal distance measured in a straight line from the property line of a residentially zoned property, residential use, school, religious institution, entertainment park, youth center, or the perimeter of a public park or playground to the closest visible edge of the advertising sign face without regard to intervening structures.
Good post, thanks